The Story of the House of Cassell
short by his excessive industry. He died suddenly, in his fifty-fourth year, on October 26, 1895, and a leader which he had written the night before appeared in the Standard on that day. In private life he was one of the most charming of men. There was always a warm corner in his heart for those who had faced danger, and he was at his best when listening to other men's experiences and capping them with his own. He never paraded his erudition, and was essentially Bohemian, although a non-smoker and almost an abstainer.
With Robert Brown's books may be associated Professor Bonney's "Story of Our Planet," published first in 1893, to present to men and women of good general education, in terminology as little technical as possible, the conclusions of geology as to the processes by which the earth was built up into its present form. In the Preface the author gives a remarkable indication of his indebtedness to his favourite science. "The study of geology," he says, "has added much to the happiness of my own life; it has taught me to appreciate more fully the beauties and the marvels of Nature; it has often restored me, when weary and jaded, to bodily health; it has helped me in bearing those trials which are the common lot." The book was issued as a serial in 1897.
Another well-known man of science who did good work for Cassell's was Dr. Martin Duncan, appointed Professor of Geology at King's College in 1870 and afterwards at Cooper's Hill College. He was the editor of "Cassell's Natural History," first published in 1876–82, in six volumes, and contributed to it some of its most important sections. Like Robert Brown, he also was a tireless worker, and at his death had to his credit over a hundred scientific papers. A later writer on Natural History was Henry Scherren, who for many years was a member of the editorial staff. His "Popular Natural History" still appears in the Catalogue. He also wrote for the House a history of the Zoological Society of London, the first attempt to tell the story of that society at any length.
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